Gathering of the Chosen (14 page)

“Anyway, Braim, do you know what bracket
you've been put in yet?” said Raya, looking at Braim again. “I know
we're not supposed to know until Alira arrives and tells us here,
but I wanted to know if the list might have leaked to you.”

“Sorry, beautiful, but I'm just as in the
dark about this as you are,” said Braim with a shrug. “I haven't
even seen Alira since the day she announced the Tournament. So it's
going to be a surprise for me, too, whenever she comes out and
announces it.”

“Braim?” Carmaz repeated. He was looking
at Braim with curious eyes now. “As in, Braim Kotogs?”

“Braim Kotogs?” Saia said, finally looking
away from Raya to look at Braim instead. His mouth gaped. “The man
who came back? Is that really you?”

The darkness creeping up Braim's spine
almost made him growl at Carmaz and Saia for some reason, but he
instead said, in a casual tone of voice, “Yeah, that's me, all
right.”

Raya pouted. “Oh, come on. Neither of you
have heard of the Princess of Carnag, but somehow you've heard of
him
?”

“We heard about Braim because a pirate
from up north brought back word of him two months ago,” said
Carmaz. “I honestly didn't believe the pirate, though, because it
sounded like another far-fetched pirate tale to me, but I guess he
must have been telling the truth when he spoke of a man who came
back from the dead.”

“Yep,” said Braim, nodding. “I really did
come back from the dead. Took me thirty years, but I did it.”

“What does being dead feel like?” asked
Saia. “Does it hurt?”

Braim shrugged, not sure how to answer the
question. “Well, uh—”

He was thankfully spared from having to
answer that question when a sudden hush fell over the entire
Stadium lobby without warning. All of the godlings, including
Braim, then looked up at the ceiling. It felt like some kind of
indescribable magical force was drawing their attention to that
direction.

Then a portion of the ceiling slid to the
side, allowing a thick metal platform to descend from the hole.
Upon the platform stood Alira, who looked exactly the same as she
had a month before, carrying the thick Tournament Rulebook in her
arms. The platform floated over to the front of the lobby, above
the five doors, allowing all of the godlings to see her.

“Is that Alira?” Carmaz whispered to
Braim, who nodded in confirmation.

“Never seen her before?” Braim whispered
back.

“First time,” said Carmaz.

The judge of the Tournament adjusted her
glasses and then looked down upon all of the godlings. She said,
“Welcome, godlings, to the Stadium of the Gods, where you will
spend the majority of your time as participants in the Tournament
over the next few months. I am pleased to see that everyone is
present and ready to start participating.”

Braim breathed a sigh of relief. So he
hadn't been late after all. He had thought that he was, but if
Alira was telling the truth, then he had clearly arrived on time.
And based on the facial expressions of Carmaz and Saia, they also
looked quite relieved that they were not late as well.

As for Raya, she was staring at Alira with
such intense concentration that she seemed to have forgotten
everything else. Braim had a feeling that he could poke her in the
back of the head with his wand and she still wouldn't take her eyes
off of Alira.

“For the past month or so, you have all
been kept in the dark regarding the finer details of the
Tournament,” said Alira. She patted the thick Rulebook in her arms.
“Today, however, I will finally explain the basic rules and
structure of the Tournament so that everyone here understands what
the rules are and how the Tournament works.”

Finally,
Braim thought.
I've
been wondering about this since the Tournament was
announced.

Alira flipped open the large Rulebook and
then let go of it. But rather than fall to the floor, the Rulebook
floated open in midair, as if being held by a large, invisible
hand. Alira placed one finger on the page, as if pinpointing the
spot where she had left off.

“First, we will start with the structure
of the Tournament,” said Alira, in her usual matter-of-fact tone.
“The Tournament of the Gods is divided into five brackets, one
bracket for each deceased god: Skimif, the God of Martir; Hollech,
the God of Deception, Thieves, and Horses; the Spider Goddess,
Goddess of Spiders and Sleet; the Avian Goddess, Goddess of Birds;
and the Human God, the God of Humans.”

Braim already knew who each of the dead
gods were. Nonetheless, he found himself wondering which position
he'd get. Because he didn't really want to be in the Tournament, he
had no actual preference for any of the positions.

He glanced at Carmaz, who perked up at the
mention of Skimif, and Raya, who also had perked up at the mention
of that deceased god's position. In fact, Braim thought that most
of the godlings in the lobby appeared very interested in Skimif's
position, seeing as it was the highest and most prestigious of them
all.

“Each bracket will contain twenty
godlings, all competing for the position of god of whatever bracket
they are assigned to,” Alira continued. “For example, the Skimif
Bracket will have twenty individuals competing for the position of
God of Martir, as will the other four. And each bracket is further
divided into ten sub-brackets, which have two participants each
competing against each other in a task that is relevant to the
position they are trying to win.

“The winner of each sub-bracket will then
move onto the main bracket, where they will compete against the
other nine sub-bracket winners for whatever divine position they
are competing for. As an example, the Skimif Bracket will have a
sub-bracket and the winners of the Skimif Sub-Bracket will then
move onto the Skimif Bracket, where they will compete with the
other nine Skimif Sub-Bracket winners for the position of God of
Martir.”

Braim folded his arms across his chest and
looked at Carmaz again. He couldn't read the Ruwan's facial
expression due to not knowing him very well, but Carmaz hardly
seemed put off by the possibility of so much competition. Raya
looked positively giddy, like she thought that this Tournament was
going to be a piece of cake.

“The winner of each bracket will then be
ascended into godhood, with all of the power and prestige that that
title implies,” Alira finished. “To keep things orderly, all
sub-bracket and bracket challenges will take place in a specified
order over a certain period of time. The exact order and time
period for each bracket will be revealed later on, after each
godling has been sorted into their own bracket.”

“What about the rules?” asked Carmaz, his
voice rather loud in the quiet and open lobby.

Carmaz's question caused all of the other
godlings to look at him, while Alira looked almost taken aback by
his question. She quickly regained her composure, however, and
said, “The what?”

“The rules for the Tournament,” said
Carmaz, who didn't seem taken aback by all of the attention from
the other godlings. “If this is a competition, it's got to have
rules, right?”

“Why yes, of course,” said Alira, though
she sounded rather annoyed by his interruption. “I was just about
to get to the rules, but thank you for asking. Yes, the rules for
this Tournament are rather varied. You do not, however, need to
know all of them. I will only cover the ones that will absolutely
get you thrown out if you break them. Others may be read on the
posters on the lobby walls.”

That was when Braim noticed tons of
posters—each full of walls of text—plastered on the lobby walls. He
wondered why he hadn't noticed them before, though based on the
reactions from the others, he guessed that he wasn't the only one
who had somehow failed to notice them. In fact, he was now
wondering if the posters might have appeared just as Alira
mentioned them. It was a real possibility, after all, given what
the gods were capable of doing with their magic.

“The first, and most important, rule is
'Do not murder your competitors,'” said Alira. “It is rather
self-explanatory: Killing your fellow godlings will result in an
instant disqualification from the Tournament. Not only that, but
participants who break this rule will also be locked away deep
beneath World's End, where they will receive a terrible punishment
from Grinf, the God of Metal, Fire, and Justice, himself for their
crime. Accidental killings may be forgiven, but it is still advised
that all godlings avoid putting their fellow participants into
mortal danger.”

That seemed like a no-brainer to Braim. He
certainly had no plans to kill any of his fellow Tournament
participants. And he doubted that Carmaz, Raya, or any of the
others here had plans to do that, either, though considering how
few of the participants he actually knew personally, he couldn't be
sure about that.

“The second most important rule is, 'Don't
cheat,'” Alira continued. “That, too, is rather self-explanatory.
If you are going to prove yourself worthy of godhood, then you must
play fairly and by the rules. It is fine to use wit, cunning, and
creativity to complete whatever tasks have been placed before you,
but you cannot blatantly break the rules and expect to get away
with it. Any blatant or willful breaking of the rules is grounds
for instant disqualification from the Tournament, though the
cheater in this case will simply be sent back home, rather than
thrown beneath World's End for all eternity, unless their cheating
also broke the first rule.”

Now Braim could see some people—he was
looking at Raya when he thought that—cheating. Even so, Braim
wondered why anyone would risk cheating if it meant instant
disqualification. It seemed rather illogical to him, but he
supposed that people didn't always make sense.

“The third most important rule is 'Do not
enlist the aid of a god or goddess to help you complete a task,'”
said Alira. “That means that you must solve each task on your own.
Conversely, no god or goddess is allowed to aid any of you in
completing any task, even if they want to. You must earn your
godhood by yourself. Like with the second rule, this one is also
grounds for instant disqualification and returning the offender
home.”

Now there was something Braim could
certainly never see himself doing. It would never have even
occurred to him to ask for help from one of the other gods or
goddesses. He didn't really like most of them anyway, considering
how they tended to treat him due to his status as a dead man
brought back to life.

“Those are the top three most important
rules that every godling should know before entering the
Tournament,” said Alira. “As long as you remember to follow these
three rules, you should have no trouble in the Tournament at all,
aside from whatever troubles the challenges may present to
you.”

“Who will judge the Tournament?” Carmaz
asked, again drawing the eyes of the other participants toward
him.

This time, Alira took his interruption in
stride. She gestured at herself and said, “Why, I will, of course.
That is the entire purpose of my existence. If I did not judge the
Tournament, then I would quite literally have no other reason to
live.”

“Okay,” said Carmaz. “And what about
people who lose honestly in the sub-brackets and main brackets?
What happens to them?”

“They are sent back to their homelands,
assuming they lost without cheating,” said Alira. “Any other
questions, Carmaz?”

Carmaz shook his head, but Braim could
tell that Carmaz was thinking hard about Alira's words. Braim heard
nothing strange in Alira's answers, so he decided not to think
about them.

“Very well,” said Alira. “With all of that
out of the way, I will now distribute these cards to each
godling.”

Alira drew a stack of cards from her
breast pocket. The cards were shining and silvery in the light.
Indeed, from a distance, they looked like they were made out of
actual silver. She raised the deck high for everyone to see.

“Upon each card is written the name of
each individual godling, along with the bracket they were assigned
to,” said Alira. “Some of you may be surprised with the bracket to
which you have been assigned, but rest assured that it is no
mistake and that you have been assigned to the correct
bracket.”

Alira threw the cards into the air. Braim
at first thought that that was a stupid thing to do, because the
deck was going to get scattered everywhere and it would probably
take a long time for all one hundred godlings to find their own
card (unless
that
was the first challenge, in which case the
gods really
were
crazy).

But the deck—rather than scattering into
every corner of the room like Braim expected—floated in midair for
a moment before each card shot out from the deck one by one. The
cards flew all over the room, flying into the hands of each godling
to whom they belonged.

Three such cards flew toward Braim, Raya,
Carmaz, and Saia. Because Raya was slightly closer to Alira than
the others, she got her card first, which she eagerly began
reading.

Braim and Carmaz caught theirs at exactly
the same time. Saia drew closer to Carmaz to see what his card
said, while Braim tilted his head down to look at the tiny, silver
card in his hand, which read thus:

BRAIM KOTOGS

BRACKET: SKIMIF BRACKET

Braim turned the card over, wondering if
there was more to it than that, but the card was completely blank
aside from those words. Even so, Braim sensed a warmth in the card
that was not natural. He suspected that it was caused by a spell
cast by Alira, probably in order to identify the card's owner.

So Braim turned the card over again to
read the words written upon it again. His eyes focused on the
second line—
BRACKET: SKIMIF BRACKET
—and he found himself
dreading it greatly.